Taiko drumming meets Kabuki theatre in rare Japanese artistic collaboration

TOKYO (AP) - The barrier that tradition has long kept between Japan's art forms comes down with a percussive bang in a rare collaboration between taiko drumming and Kabuki theatre. Amaterasu, a performance piece that debuted in May, defies convention in this country's often rigid and hierarchical art world.

It brings together Tamasaburo Bando, one of Kabuki's top onnagata - a male actor who specializes in playing women's roles - and Kodo, a taiko ensemble that has won international recognition.

There is no dialogue in the two-hour piece. Using a stark set of scaffolding with hanging gongs, it weaves through a collage of dance and music a simple story based on the legend of how the god of storms forced sun goddess Amaterasu to hide in a cave, plunging the world into darkness.

Wearing white makeup and waltzing in flowing gem-covered robes, Bando is striking as the androgynous-appearing goddess, who eventually reappears to bring happiness and light amid celebratory dance and drumming.

Kabuki theatre uses drumming and other traditional instruments for dance music and sound effects. But the drumming by Kodo and other taiko groups is more modern, blending elements of Western compositions, Latin rhythms, Japanese folk tune and other music like Indonesia's gamelan.

"Rather than telling a story in detail as theatre, I wanted to emphasize the recreation of light through Kodo's music and the bigger theme about delivering light," Bando said in the program's pamphlet.

The musicians show off their trademark physical power and artistry of touch in striking taiko drums, which are made by stretching cowhide over a hollowed-out tree trunk, and range from dinner-plate size to as big as a circular bed.

The work will be presented in Kyoto, but there are no plans so far for it to appear overseas.

© The Canadian Press, 2006